Translation
by Calleo
Summary: Why settle for brushing up on your Common when you can simply hire a translator?


I figured I needed an IC reason why a Gnome would be 'translating' for a Sin'dorei Warlock and how it was possible.

As, "Because I think it'd totally ROCK!" isn't really a viable excuse, here we go...

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_"You just __**had**__ to take the Tram; couldn't stay around Kharanos, oh no, not you, too curious for your own good, and now look where it's gone and gotten you!"_

The jarring voice of Digna's common sense was the first coherent thought that popped up once the blinding terror had subsided.

She recalled stepping onto the Tram platform at Ironforge and only having a brief moment to look around before she felt as though something invisible had hit her; following that, an overwhelming urge to run away, no matter where away happened to be.  
She had tried to do just that only to find herself unable to move.  
Just prior to that sickening fear, Digna could have sworn she heard someone hiss-something-in an unfamiliar language. She had no idea what might have been said, only that it caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up in addition to a very sudden onset of a cold sweat.

Now, finding herself unable to move and still quite frightened, the Gnome looked around, trying to see her captor.

_"Or captor__**s**__."_

She could not, initially, make out what was keeping her still; it was dark, wispy, and transparent save for what looked like a pair of thick bracelets. Twisting her head around a bit, she saw that the transparent creature holding her did, indeed, have something that might have been a face, that is, if one considered two glowing white things on a 'knob' that may have been a head a 'face'.  
It only took her a moment, seeing that, to realize what held her: A Voidwalker.  
Digna had never seen one up close before, but she had read about them on numerous occasions.  
The demon seemed to take delight in holding its frightened prey; tendrils of shadow wrapped around her arms, her pigtails, and even her face on occasion. She suppressed the desire to shudder every time another whisked by.

_"If there's a Voidwalker, there's a Warlock-"_

Mustering up all of the courage that she could, and hoping that this was just a prank in poor taste, she half shouted, "All right! Very funny! Fizzlesprocket, if that's you, you got me, good job, now tell your stupid little pet to put me down!"

She heard another command, something between a sharp order and a hiss, and still in that unfamiliar language; to her surprise and relief the Voidwalker released her.

Digna did what any smart Gnome would do in that sort of situation: She ran.

She hadn't taken more than two steps when she again felt an overwhelming sense of fear, causing her to lose any sense of direction and simply run blind. The Gnome, unknown to her, was carefully herded back to the keeper of the Voidwalker; she only stopped running when she bumped into something-clothy.

Once again, the fear subsided, and in front of her she saw, well, she wasn't sure what it was that she saw. It certainly wasn't one of the Tram supports, being that it was covered in cloth. It was-red.  
Behind her, she felt the presence of that miserable demon again and, looking down, could see tendrils of shadow surrounding the immediate area to her left and right. Though these made no physical barrier, they left Digna with a sense of dread that told her it would not be wise to run again.

Digna closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, _"It's probably just a Human, they're tall, and you've seen a few of them in Ironforge before._"  
Taking a deep breath, the young Mage opened her eyes and tilted her head upwards to see what it was that she'd just bumped.

Calleo, having had his bit of unplanned amusement with the Gnome, looked down at her, meeting her gaze with a slightly bemused one of his own, "So kind of you to finally quit running about."

Digna's eyes widened; she knew that this was no human and was not one of the Elven races with which they Gnomes were allied. This one was-off.  
For one, his eyes were a bright, sickening, Fel green and for another, she couldn't recall ever having seen a Kaldorei, or even a Quel'dorei for that matter, that appeared so physically frail.  
She had to scoot back toward the Voidwalker to actually see him; if she had to make a quick estimate, Digna was sure that the top of her head would barely reach this man's knees.  
That fact alone was daunting even without the added benefits of the glowing eyes and large Voidwalker.

"Y-you, you, you, sp-speak, you speak Gn-Gnomish?" The Mage buried her face in her hands, a bit embarrassed at her own lack of eloquence.

The Warlock appeared slightly taken aback, if only momentarily, "I wouldn't say that I speak it, more that I can understand it and am highly capable of mangling it nearly beyond recognition when I do attempt to speak it. Really, considering all I have to go by are the lepers who are, ah, employed by our tailors, it could be worse."

Digna laughed, despite the situation that she was in, not so much because of what he'd said, but because of how badly he'd said it. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter; it would not do to anger someone who was clearly much bigger and much stronger and probably quite a bit more unbalanced than herself, "Sorry, sorry, I sh-shouldn't, shouldn't laugh, I-I mean, it wasn't th-that terrible, it was understandable at leas-least."

She cringed, expecting a curse or for the Voidwalker behind her to snatch her up again, but, instead, the Warlock continued, "I would rather prefer to go beyond 'understandable' and into something a shade closer to fluency. That," Calleo leaned down over Digna, causing her to shrink back out of reflex, "is where you come in, little one."

"Wh-where I come i-in?" Digna cursed under her breath over the fact that she sounded like a nervous little child, "I don't quite-I don't-what do you want from me?" She blinked, thinking over the mangled sentence that she'd just heard from him, "Yo-you, if you think I'm going to teach you anything you're more mad than you l-look!"

Calleo's smile, if one could call it that, faded and he straightened, "That's a pity, really, I had hoped that you wouldn't put up a fuss; unfortunately, my dear little thing, you haven't got a choice in the matter. You will do as I ask or you will end up-"

Digna finally clambered to her feet, staring down, as best she could, Calleo, "Dead? You'll kill me then? HA! Go ahead, I'd rather die than have to serve a horrid man like you!"

The Warlock blinked, tilting his head to one side; a ghost of a smile passed over his face, and he-laughed?

Digna stood, confused, and still staring up at Calleo, "It-it's not funny!"

"Oh, but it is!" Calleo grinned rather mirthlessly down at the Gnome, "Killing you would be pointless, considering that, if I did that, you'd be completely useless to me; Silvermoon, however, could always use another Gnome in its tailoring shop. You'd be given your own little cage and all of the cloth that you could weave." He waved a hand in some sort of conversational gesture which she did not understand, "Or, failing that, the apothecaries in the Undercity would very likely have some good use for you."

She continued to stare up at him for several minutes before her shoulders slumped and she finally looked away, "What do you want then?"

"Oh, now, let's not sulk, it's not as though I'm kidnapping you and planning to keep you in a jar," He reached down and patted her head in a clearly condescending manner, "What I want from you is translation."

"T-tranlsation?"

"Yes, yes," the Warlock seemed to be becoming a bit more irritated, "Translation. I know I'm saying the word correctly; you will, should I need you, accompany me and play the part of a translator."

Digna nodded, "I-I see, what's to keep me from running off the minute you leave?" Immediately, Digna regretted having said that out loud, though she was certain that that situation was something that had crossed the Warlock's mind.

"Fear," Calleo examined the pattern on his gloves, "is an excellent motivational tool, however, it tends to subside over time." His gaze snapped to the Voidwalker, "Klathgorg!"

Wordlessly, the Voidwalker picked Digna up by the shoulders, turned her so her back was facing Calleo, and moved the left shoulder of her robe out of the way.  
Digna struggled to free herself, though she knew that doing so was really quite pointless. She squeezed her eyes shut in order to avoid having to look at the demon and waited.

That language-the same language she had heard just before the demon grabbed her for the first time; she still did not recognize it, though its words seemed to twist through her mind as though they wished for her to understand and comprehend. Digna's thoughts on that matter we cut short by a sharp, searing pain on her shoulder that radiated throughout her entire body. She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood; she would **not** give that Warlock the satisfaction of so much as a yelp.  
Once the pain subsided, Digna was left with a vague queasy feeling as well as the feeling of being dropped flat on her arse onto the Tram platform.

"You know," Calleo was musing, "I really ought to ask you your name; seems rather rude to use you and not know that."

Digna's jaw dropped, "M-my, why would I tell you THAT? What did you just DO to me?"

"Hm? Oh, that? Think of it as a tracking collar of sorts," he paused, tapping his chin, "although, it's really not a collar, more of a-no, not really a tattoo either, those tend to be somewhat visible. It will, however, let me give you a little ring when I could use a bit of translation; I'd suggest that you find a way to appear when called, as you'd rather not have to deal with me if I have to trudge out and find you myself."

"I-o-okay-" was all that she could manage to stammer.

Calleo clapped his hands together in mock appreciation, "Excellent; let's hope that you're a touch more eloquent when you meet me out in Goldshire in thirty minutes."

"Wh-what?"

The Warlock sighed, somewhat exasperated, "Don't feign that you don't understand what I'm saying; you heard me."

Digna nodded, absently rubbing her backside; that stone floor was HARD, and she wasn't at all pleased that the Voidwalker had simply dropped her. A fading hiss and the clattering of a pair of bracers behind her snapped her back to attention.  
Turning, she saw that the Voidwalker was no longer anywhere to be seen; its keeper, however, was now surrounded in what she could only describe as a 'halo' and was sitting atop a scaled, horned, fiery horse that was walking calmly toward the exit of the Tram.

As she pulled herself to her feet, her new 'friend' evidently had a parting thought. He jerked the Dreadsteed's reins, stopping the creature. The Dreadsteed reared back, not particularly wishing to turn around; Calleo spit what Digna thought to be an epithet, despite it being in the language that made her shiver, and the Dreadsteed obeyed.  
He peered over the head of the demon horse, and caught Digna's eye, "One more thing, when you do find me there, you'd do well to behave as though this had not happened and we are on-friendly-terms."

Digna nodded mutely, transfixed more on the fire snorting horse than on its rider.

Calleo gave her a sharp nod and kicked the Dreadsteed hard in the flanks, once again jerking its reins to turn it. The fire in the horse's eyes flared malevolently as it obeyed without question this time, taking itself and its rider out into the Dwarven District of Stormwind.

Digna waited until she was sure that he wasn't coming back before climbing to her feet and stepping out into the city proper; in the distance she heard the shouting of guards, though what they were saying was too faint for her to make out.  
Not really knowing the layout of the city, it took her a quite some time to find her way to the gates; there she passed several guards coming back in from Elwynn Forest.

"H-hey!" Digna tapped one of the guards on a his plated knee.

The guard blinked and looked around, slightly confused, before hearing, "Down here!"

"Oh! Hello Miss, what can I do for you?"

"What just happened? I-I heard a lot of shouting-"

The guard spit on the ground, "Oh that; some damned Sin'dorei Warlock came charging through like he owned the place. Not the first time we've seen him either, and we've had several reports from Ironforge that he's been there as well. The King really ought to put more into security on the Tram if you ask me."

Digna nodded, "D-did you catch him?"

"Catch him? Kiddo, I'm on foot, he's on a horse, what do you think?" The guard sighed and forced a smile, "He took off into the forest again; if you're headed out that way, be safe and stay on the main roads."

"All right, thank you, I'll keep that in mind!" Digna smiled up at the guard and stepped out on the road that led to Goldshire.


End file.
